There was a slow uptake from municipalities for the incentive-based Phase 2 of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), Public Works Portfolio Committee chairperson Manana Mabuza said on Wednesday.

An incentive grant was introduced in the second phase to encourage entities not only to make more use of labour-intensive methods, but also to create longer, or more permanent, work opportunities, and would be paid out quarterly, provided that quarterly reports were received.

About R3.1-billion has been allocated to the Department of Public Works over the 2011 medium-term expenditure framework to pay out the incentive to provincial departments and municipalities.

In the last financial year, R185-million of the R330-million allocation was paid out to provinces, and R273-million of R622-million was paid to municipalities. In total, EPWP expenditure was R458-million out of the R952-million allocation.

Ninety-one out of 126 eligible municipalities accessed their incentive, an increase on the previous year.

However, public bodies were under-reporting and using low-labour-intensive projects, and were therefore not accessing their full incentives, Mabuza said at the second EPWP Municipal Summit, in Johannesburg.

She said there were certain challenges common to municipalities, including a lack of control systems.

The South African Local Government Association's (Salga's) Xolile George also found the lack of reporting from municipalities “concerning”, indicating that the EPWP was not fully “institutionalised” in municipalities.

But, he acknowledged the participation of municipalities in their contribution to the EPWP.

Municipalities that have committed to the programme have grown from 68 municipalities in 2009, to 210 municipalities in 2011.

George aims for the remaining 60 municipalities of South Africa’s 270 to commit to the programme.

New Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi also pointed out that since the first municipal summit in November last year, 88% of municipalities have signed their EPWP protocol agreements.

Nxesi said he hoped to intensify service delivery through labour-intensive models, achieve 100% participation in the EPWP and ensure that all municipalities, particularly those in rural areas, were able to access the incentive grant.

“I am confident that our municipalities can play a critical role in drawing significant members of the unemployed into productive work, particularly because of their strategic positioning at the coalface of service delivery,” he explained.

City of Johannesburg member of the mayoral committee for transport Rehana Moosajee said the incentives and grants from the EPWP were able to complement the city in its efforts to create work opportunities.

For the first phase of the EPWP, the City of Johannesburg exceeded its target of creating 120 000 work opportunities and achieved 153 835.

For the second phase, it has set a target of 150 000 work opportunities over five years, of which it hopes to create 35 000 work opportunities in the current financial year.